I saw my Grandpa today for the first time since... I don't even really remember. Eighth grade, I think.
He's been living in the same town as me since I was in elementary school and he has, since I last saw him, already become an American citizen, a fact that I didn't learn about until I came home this summer. Apparently, a little while back (when he was about 80), he also decided to take classes at a local college and has since graduated, which means that his entire life he's done nothing but either go to school or teach at a school. And play chess.
Communicating with him was interesting since he prefers to speak Mandarin or Shanghainese to me and I only speak English back to him. Mom sort of served as a translator, but more or less, we understood each other.
Weirder though was summarizing my entire childhood, high school experience, and current college and career aspirations in what was about a 20 minute visit (though granted, about 15 minutes of that was devoted to discussing currency exchange rates between Hong Kong, China, and the US), having to tell him that I actually no longer go by my middle name anymore, and hearing about my half-uncle.
2 hours ago
